Athens request European aid to host 100,000 refugees

2 years ago

Greece has submitted a plan “emergency” to the European Union (EU) to organize the reception of 100,000 refugees on its territory as an increasing number of migrants remain stranded in the country , the government announced Tuesday.

“We are not able to deal with all the refugees coming” and “we submitted an emergency plan to the European Commission for hosting 100,000 refugees,” said Olga Gerovassili, spokesman of the government, during his weekly press briefing.

“Preventing a possible humanitarian crisis”

Under this plan, Greece would need € 480 million, said the spokesman, noting that currently 23,000 refugees and migrants were in the country. Greece had so far planned for between 50,000 and 70,000 migrants.

Monday, the Commission said that “a contingency plan was being developed to help Greece” as well as other countries of Western Europe to “prevent a possible humanitarian crisis. ” Last week the President of the Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, during a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Brussels, had reported a total of about 500 million euros for this purpose.